NHL 2005

THE BAD:
-No Create-a-Player (what were they thinking)
-Cannot see the league wide scoring leaders, only stats for teams individually

SUMMARY:
Overall the gameplay in this game is awesome, it has changed a bit from the past games, but is fairly easy to pick up again. There is a new feature called "Open Ice Control" which alows you to call for back up or take control of another player who doesn't have the puck to try and get open for a pass.

The Goaltending has improved, there is still more scoring than in real life, but you can adjust a lot of different settings to customize the different gameplay physics (such as accuracy, hitting, blocking shots, pass interception, fatigue, etc...)

The off ice general manager/coaching stuff in the dynasty mode is great, you can make trades and negotiate contracts with players (if you low ball them, they wil refuse to talk with you anymore). You can set ticket prices and arena concessions to try and make your fans happy and to try to squeeze out as much profit as you need.

If that stuff isn't your cup of tea, you can just play a regular season aswell.

I reccomend this game, it's the best hockey game I have played. It would have been near perfect if there was a create-a-player mode.